Am.  Jour.Pharm. 
July,  1SS9. 
Editorial. 
381 
Dallas,  May  14,  President  J.  W.  Greshani  in  the  chair  :  L.  M.  Connor  acting 
secretary.  The  president  presented  an  address,  and  the  different  officers 
and  committees  made  reports.  The  discussion  of  the  pharmacy  law  re- 
sulted in  the  suggestion  of  several  desirable  amendments.  Papers  were 
read  on  antipyrine  by  J.  Kennedy,  and  on  mixtures  of  calomel  and  milk 
sugar  by  W.  Kendall.  The  officers  elected  are  J.  L.  Williams,  Dallas,  presi- 
dent:  T.  F.  Meyer,  W.  B.  Morrison  and  H.  L.  Carleton,  vice  presidents: 
L.  M.  Connor,  Dallas,  secretary  :  E.  W.  Marshall,  Lancaster,  treasurer:  and 
F.  Drice  local  secretary  for  the  next  meeting  to  be  held  in  San  Antonio 
on  the  second  Tuesday  in  May,  1890. 
EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
False  senega  and  Southern  senega. — In  several  essays  on  senega  published 
during  the  past  year  the  editor  of  this  Journal  has  been  quoted  as  having 
stated  somewhere  that  '''Southern  senega  is  procured  from  Polygala 
Boykinii."  The  latest  quotation  of  this  nature  is  found  in  a  very  creditable 
paper  by  Ludwig  Eeuter  in  Archiv  der  Pharmacie,  April  1889  p.  311. 
In  order  to  forestall  similar  erroneous  references  in  the  future  we  desire 
it  to  be  noted,  that  we  have  never,  in  writing  or  verbally,  made  such  an 
assertion.  What  we  did  say,  and  here  repeat,  is  that  false  (keelless)  senega 
was  first  noticed  by  us  in  1S76;  that  subsequently  we  traced  a  commercial 
lot  to  Southwestern  Missouri,  but  were  not  successful  in  ascertaining  the 
exact  locality  where  it  had  been  collected,  or  in  obtaining  specimens  of  the 
plant  with  root  attached  :  and  that  after  Dr.  Gunn  of  Alabama  called  atten- 
tion to  the  virtues  of  Pol.  Boykinii,  we  obtained  from  him  a  single  plant 
with  root,  the  latter  agreeing  in  appearance  and  structure  with  the  false 
senega,  though  somewhat  smaller  than  the  commercial  article  of  the  keel- 
less  root.  Since  we  have  in  our  possession  specimens  of  true  senega  root 
from  several  of  the  Southern  states,  it  would  be  ridiculous  for  us  to  asert 
that  Southern  senega  was  not  collected  from  Pol.  Senega. 
When  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  in 
1S81  Prof.  Loyd  exhibited  the  Northern  senega  in  which  the  keel  was  usually 
less  distinct  than  ordinarily,  we  stated  that  these  roots  were  much  larger — 
and  we  might  have  added  also  much  darker  in  color— than  the  keelless 
senega;  and  until  the  latter  can  be  procured — plant  with  root  attached — 
we  feel  disposed  to  regard  it  as  being  the  product  of  a  species  differing  from 
Pol.  Senega,  and  possibly  from  Pol.  Boykinii. 
Ihe  Pennsylvania  Pharmacy  law  has  been  supplemented  by  an  act  of 
which  the  following  is  a  correct  copy. 
A  Supplement  to  an  act  entitled  :<  An  act  to  regulate  the  practice  of 
pharmacy  and  sale  of  poisons,  and  to  prevent  adulterations  in  drugs  and 
medicinal  preparations  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,"  approved  May  twenty- 
fourth,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight-seven. 
